“I don’t believe you.” Thea sucks on her bottom lip. “I’ve heard rumors.”
I lift a brow.
She huffs. “You copied my phone somehow. Read through my private conversations.”
“What makes you think you’re interesting enough to be a target for something so elaborate? You’re a nobody. Invisible. We don’t notice you.” I grasp her jaw, narrowing my eyes. “You’re
the one that started it when you sent me that pic of you in your nightie with your boobs almost spilling out. You wanted someone to pay attention and I did.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you’re just making fun of me again.”
A wild grin crosses my face. With a deft move, I pop a button on my shirt, then another. “Want me to strip to prove it? How much do you need to see? Abs?” I lick my lips slowly, making sure she’s watching before I drop my hands to my belt. “More?”
In a flustered frenzy, she clamps her hands over mine, squeezing with more strength than I would’ve guessed. In my periphery, I feel the eyes of people openly staring at the scene we’re making.
I laugh. “Feisty, huh? Can’t keep your hands off me.”
Thea lets go as if I’ve burned her. I prop my hands on either side of her head and crowd her against the lockers again.
“I’m not bluffing,” I say. “I’ve seen more of you than I bet you’ve shown to anyone, sunshine.”
“This can’t be happening,” Thea utters, more to herself than me.
“Damn, how horny are you, Bishop?” Sean taunts as he passes us in the hall. “You’re hitting up the uptight nerds now?”
Keeping my eyes on Thea, I snort and play with one of the bobbles on her sweater. “I needed a snack and she was the closest chick around.”
His sharp cackle makes Thea flinch, the sound grating as he swaggers down the hall. I grit my teeth and grab her, looking for somewhere private to talk. I can’t hash this out with her and field interruptions demanding a different kind of show. She follows obediently.
“In here.” I herd her into an empty classroom by my grip on her upper arm to get the prying, gossiping eyes off us.
It’s one of the science labs, dimly lit by the half-drawn shades on the windows, the main lights off.
I never meant to do this in front of an audience. Humiliating her wasn’t part of the plan, I only intended to make sure I had her in checkmate when I revealed myself. But when I saw her smile for Coleman, I just acted. Left my strategy in the dust.
“We’re going to be late for next period,” Thea says, her eyes flashing at me mutinously.
Christ, that look. You’d think I kicked her dog.
She tugs her arm from my grasp. “Please let me go.”
“Who says I want to?”
“Me. I want you to, so you will.” She skirts around me, stepping out of range to lean against a lab table in the deserted science room. Crossing her arms over her chest, she lifts her brows. “Why did you wait so long to reveal yourself? Why did you do it at all if I had the wrong number?”
Her soft voice rises, drawing a chuckle from me. I shrug, admiring another photo from our messages. It’s one of her tamer ones from the last few weeks, but I love it. Her red hair looks fantastic in thick high pigtails while she sucks icing off her finger, grinning at the camera with a cheeky mischief she never shows at school.
“Because it was fun.” I rake my eyes over her. “And hot. All I thought about every night was how you were just a short distance away, getting off with me.”
“But I didn’t know it was you! This is all wrong. I wanted—” A rough sound tears from her throat and she turns away, hiding her face. “You’re disgusting.”
“Disgustingly skilled at making you come, you mean.” I slide my tongue along my lower lip as I taunt her. “You’re so good for me, aren’t you? I keep wondering if you’ll do the same for anyone who pays attention to you.”
I don’t say it, but Coleman crosses my mind. The way he was leaning into her space before I interrupted makes me want to punch something. Preferably his smarmy face.
“Stop it.” Thea pulls the cuffs of her sweater over her hands, twisting the material until it’s stretched out and limp. She looks like I’ve shattered her world, the crestfallen expression killing her light. I frown, disliking seeing her face so shadowed. Her eyes lift to meet mine, glistening with wetness. “Why are you doing this?”
“Well, I was horny and high when you texted, so I think that’s self explanatory, but—”